A WINNING DESIGN High school garners top architecture award. Page 4
COMMUNITY | New camp for [4] teens to begin. COMMENTARY | Approach the parks budget like a business. [6] SPORTS | Track athletes qualify for state championship. [14]
CHARMING AUDIENCES Seattle performance artist comes to Snapdragon. Page 10
BEACHCOMBER VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 21
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Carving and culture
Local artist works to keep Native traditions alive By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
At the Vashon Forest Stewards lumber yard last Friday, a group of second graders crowded around two 11-foot totem poles in the making. Shuffling their feet in wood chips and occasionally touching the colorfully painted poles, the Chautauqua students peppered the totems’ creator, acclaimed Native artist Odin Lonning, with questions. Most of their queries had easy answers. “Do you ever get splinters?” “How do you make the eyes?” Others, however, were more perceptive. “What are the stories that they tell?” “Do you do it the way that the Indians did it?” Later, Lonning, who is 61, said with a laugh that he enjoys talking about his work with young children. Kids aren’t afraid to ask questions that adults shy away from, he said, and they can be surprisingly insightful. For instance, during a recent First Friday when Lonning had his totem poles on display, a 10-year-old quickly caught on to his description of Native American culture as a “living culture.” “A lot of people think in terms of Native culture as they used to do this, they used to do that,” Lonning said. “But they’re still doing it.” Lonning, an Alaska Native who has lived on Vashon since 1999, is one of a
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Vashon artist Odin Lonning tells a group of second graders about the totem poles he is carving.
SEE ARTIST, 19
New teen center aims to be resource for sexual health By SUSAN RIEMER Staff Writer
REMEMBERING THE FALLEN About 150 people attended Vashon’s Memorial Day Ceremony at the Veterans’ Memorial at the Vashon Cemetery on Monday. Highlights of the annual event, organized by the American Legion, included an address by Zach Stackhouse, right, an islander who recently graduated from The Citadel, music by the Judd Creek Gospel Choir, powerful solos of the national anthem and “Amazing Grace” by Abigail Kranjcevich as well as John Dally on the bagpipes and Barry Cooper playing Taps. Chris Gaynor Photos
Island teens with questions about relationships, sex and sexuality now have new resources for answers: DoVE’s Teen Centre and its confidential texting line. The center, which opened last Friday at DoVE’s office in Courthouse Square, was created in response to requests from teens themselves, said DoVE’s director, Betsey Archambault. DoVE staff and volunteers will be on hand to talk in a confidential setting, and several resources will be available as well, meant to address questions and concerns about a variety of issues, ranging from teen dating abuse and its warning signs to questioning one’s sexuality or coming out. Some free contraceptives will be
available, as will Plan B, an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive. The center will be open to teens on Friday afternoons through the end of the school year and during regular business hours in the summer. The intent is to fill an unmet need and provide teens with accurate information to make the safest, healthiest, most informed decisions possible. “We had been hearing from teens that they do not feel like there is a good place to ask some of the more difficult questions,” Archambault said. “After health class, they do not feel like there is a place to go.” Archambault chairs a sexual health committee, which includes several SEE CENTER, 13